The invention relates to a dialysis machine with a control panel comprising a touch screen.
In prior art dialysis machines having a touch screen this is mounted in a fixed position on the dialysis machine on the front side of the machine and at the top thereof where the screen can be easily reached by a nurse or another person responsible for the dialysis treatment, who is standing on the floor in front of the machine.
The cost increase in the dialysis care due to the continuously increasing number of patients--the increase is at present about 9% per year--enforces an increasing need of so called self-care at home or at some other place outside the hospitals, which means that it is the patient himself who controls the dialysis machine during the dialysis treatment the total care expense being lower as a consequence thereof. The touch screen is ideal for self-care because it requires no pressure forces at the control, only a touch of the screen at the intended position being sufficient, and because the information on the screen can be very easily understood by the patient also in a critical situation. On a touch screen symbols and fields which function as control buttons, and also indications can be designed such that only those as are relevant to the actual treatment situation are shown. As a consequence thereof the patient has no possibility to wongly engage into the treatment procedure as is the case when only "real" buttons are provided for the control. Since the patient is sitting or laying during the dialysis treatment the touch screen of prior art dialysis machines cannot be reached by the patient as easily as by a nurse who is standing in front of the machine. Some effort has to be exercised by the patient in order to reach the touch screen and to read the same and to effect the touches of the fields or symbols shown on the touch screen as required in order to adjust the dialysis machine in one respect or the other during the progress of the dialysis treatment. It is necessary that the control can be effected by one hand only--the left or the right hand--since the other hand or arm is connected to the machine by means of blood hoses during the dialysis treatment, and that the control can take place without effort considering the fact that dialysis patients often are very weak.
The proportion of the treatment which takes place as self-care is, however, still so small that it is not possible to develop dialysis machines intended particularly for this type of treatment.